I upvote when the argument is good or I want to give a little more visibility for the argument expressed in the comment. And if it’s a joke, to show that I enjoyed the joke.

I downvote if an argument is in bad faith or not thought of thoroughly at all.

If it seeds division, doesn’t provide a path to discussion, is overtly toxic, is in bad faith, or is flame bait. It gets the downvote.

I tend to upvote submissions that promote the community, comments that do good jobs explaining things, and comments that have productive controbution. I don’t downvote people that disagree with me. Those are reserved for people being assholes. My vote/view ratio is pretty low

I upvote a lot of comments. I try not to downvote many - I try to only downvote shitty comments, which are not ones with which I disagree, but shitty arguments or other bad actors. I also try not to upvote comments with which I agree that are shitty.

But I admit I’m nowhere near 100% on this.

But overall, I like upvoting lots of comments. If I read it and like it, I typically upvote. If I disgree but thought it was well-written or decently-written, I tend to upvote.

It pisses me off when I write a well-thought-out comment that has information that I wish people in the thread would read but it goes against preconceived notions so it attracts downvotes. It sucks. But that’s just how things are.

That I have RSD doesn’t help, though. I struggle not to take replies personally, but it’s difficult when that’s the only way I can seem to read something. But this begins to stray from the question at hand.

I rarely ever downvote unless it’s racist/sexist/bigoted nonsense or complete bullshit/misinformation. I don’t downvote people I merely disagree with.

I upvote clever jokes, insightful comments, and anything I think isn’t pointless. I upvote a lot, haha.

I use upvotes as a ‘read’ button. Sometimes when I enjoyed a post, I up it it as well. Rarely do I downvote unless I noticed the post/comment was already negative.

I downvote the bot that posts nothing but links to reddit. I could block it and move on but somebody has to tell it that it sucks. Sometimes I’ll go to the profile and downvote every post until I get bored or catch up. This is a way to quickly tag the bot post for when it shows up in Top Hour feed (often). None of the posts lead to any sort of discussion here. It’s a neverending stream of shit in communities it moderates so reporting is a waste of fuckin time.

This is Lemmy and not reddit. I am here for Lemmy not reddit content. I am certain there are a lot of reddit refugees here. People who left and don’t want to look back. If I wanted to read clankers replying to clankers in threads I cant participate in provided to you by clankers I would have stayed on reddit and tried to not get permanently banned.

The worst part is that sometimes the posts have a compelling topic. I’ll read the post title (and not the user who posted it) and be excited about the discussion it could bring about. The disappointment in seeing it being a link to reddit by that bot after reading the title is almost palpable.

Upvotes are a different story. Since it means less here than it does on reddit I try to do it more often for human posts. There is less incentive to farm karma here so I am more willing to do my part in boosting good contributions made in good faith.

I upvote posts I enjoy reading or hearing about. I upvote comments that are intelligent and/or well said. I rarely downvote.

The other day I upvoted a post I agreed with. A reply disagreed with it and made a thoughtful argument against the post I agreed with. I upvoted that too. Thoughtful discussion and insight is always something I appreciate.

I don’t downvote because my instance has disabled downvotes (because they’re often used to harass the minorities the instance I’m on is dedicated to protecting)

I upvote things I like or agree with, and sometimes just when I feel good-will towards a user even if their message is problematic (like when in a disagreement, but there is a desire to maintain and build trust still)

I mostly just upvote or pass. If someone is adding to the conversation and keeping the Fediverse alive, upvote. Like throwing a thumbs up.

I have a very similar attitude as yourself. I want to emphasize as well the main content I don’t upvote is content I don’t understand, like posts about animes I don’t watch etc. So I have very few down votes tbh.

Upvote things I felt like were worth reading. Down vote things I didn’t think were worth reading.

Typically, I up vote if someone makes a good point or a good joke. If they’re being jerks or being misleading, i down vote it. Of course, jerk can be subjective. I try not to make it about opinion, but realistically, something like “Trump bro“ is being a jerk

When I joined lemmy after not having a account on any social media for years, I kept overthinking how and what to upvote that I just decided not to vote on anything.